The Seamstress; or, The White Slave of England — page 57: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

0 SS a a Se oe! ee 50 chord was vibrating with an unknown pleasure in her heart. For, oh! in the channel which her meditations had been insensibly suffered to take, the word Love had for the first time in the maiden’s life occurred in connexion with herself: and although she was startled for a moment by the new voice which had thus given a whispered evidence of its being in the depths of her soul, yet at the next instant she felt her heart thrilling with the soft melody of the pleasing sound. For there is a magic in the idea as well as in the name of Love, which exercises its influence upon even the purest mind: and the very first moment the suspicion of either loving or being beloved takes inception in the female heart, the world around and all its circumstances begin to ap- pear in a new light. Then does there indeed seem to be something worth living for,—something that promises recompense for all the cruellest struggles against vicissitude and woe,—something, in fine, which, along the vista of past sorrows and present uncertainties, affords a glimpse of a paradise even in this world! Yes—and it was that magie name of Love which Virginia, unconsciously and insensibly led on by the current of her reflections, had breathed unto herself,— whispering it like a word that stole by a heavenly inspiration into her mind, and accom- panied by a celestial ray which illumed that mind at the same moment and made it sensible of the phase of indescribable bliss on which it was en- tering. With drooping arms the maiden held in her hands the work upon which she had been s0 dili- gently engaged until that instant:—and relapsing into a reverie as profound as it was irresistible, she suffered her imagination to wander upon the en- chanted grounds of the future. Building up castles on the g.lden sands of a realm of her own creating, she was led to fancy herself already emancipated from the crushing thraldom of her real position— wooed and courted by a youth as generous-hearted as he was handsome—next becoming the happy bride of him who loved her thus devotedly and whom she loved in return as tenderly and as well— and then settling down into all the placid enjoy- ments and tranquil pleasures of domestic life. Oh! it was a truly elysian dream amidst the mazes of which that poor girl’s imagination now wandered: -—alas for her that it should ever have known an awakening! And there she sate, giving way to the irresistible current of her reflections—or rather borne along in the sea-shell chariot which imagination was wafting upon the bosom of the silver streams that flow with musical sound through fancy’s fairy land,—there she sate, while the fire died away in the grate and the candle was burning down into its socket; and the stern, culd realities of the world around her being forgotten, she was roving in the ideal realms of a brain created future. Oh! how rudely—how cruelly was she recalled to herself by a tap at her door: and the sound, though low in reality, struck her with all the violence of a thunder-shock. She sprang to her feet: all her golden visions were dissipated as quick as the eye can wink; and she found herself as it were face to face once more with the lean, gaunt, hideous spectre of Misery ! POOLE A THE SEAMSTRESS, The knock was repeated: for a moment she pressed her hand forcibly to her brow, in order to steady her thoughts ; and the next instant she hur- ried to open the door. “I began to think you had gone to bed, Vir- ginia,” said Miss Barnet, as she entered the chamber: “and yet I saw the light between the crevices of the door. But I suppose you had fallen asleep ?”’ she added, as she observed the cheerless grate, and the candle with an immensely elongated wick, * What o’clock is it, Tulia®” inquired the maiden, as with trembling hand she remedied the latter inconvenience by means of the snuffers, *‘ Nearly nine,’ returned Miss Barnet: and it now struck Virginia that there was an accent of mingled bitterness and vexation in her friend’s tone. “ Has anything annoyed you, Julia?” she in- quired, her suspicion receiving apparent confirma- tion from the troubled looks of Miss Barnet. “To teil you the truth, I am in a terrible rage,” responded this young female, her eyes flashing fire, “You know that I have been expecting Mr. Osmond —that it was his own appointment—and that I waited.at home at his express desire, conveyed to me by letter? Well, he has not made his appear- ance at all: and he has only just sent a hurried note of apology, without mentioning any cause, and like- wise without saying when he will come. Now, is not this enough to provoke me ?” A sudden feeling that was akin to disgust rose up in Virginia's mind towards Miss Barnet. Was it that the new sentiment which had taken birth in her own pure soul had shed a light upon her compre- hension in a particular respect, and so far enlarged her experience as to enable her to understand and appreciate ail that there was revolting, indelicate, and repulsive in the idea of a young female decking herself out with meretricious gaiety to receive the man who pensioned her? Yes—assuredly, some such feelings as these sprang up in Virginia’s mind, as her eyes settled upon Miss Barnet apparelled in one of her most gaudy dresses. *T ask whether this is not enough to provoke me ?” repeated the young woman, as Virginia did not immediately reply to the observation. *“T am truly sorry that you should have expe- rienced any cause for annoyance, Julia,” said Miss Mordaunt, her conscience reproaching her for what she believed to be a sentiment of ingratitude to- wards one who had rendered her the most import- ant services. * And yet you speak coldly, Virginia,” cried Miss Barnet, observing a sort of constraint in the manner of her friend. ‘ Has anything unpleasant occurred to you ?” For an instant the young seamsiress hesitated how to answer. She had resolved to make a confi- dant of Julia relative to all that had taken place in the afternoon: but some scarcely definable sen- timent of repugnance to breathe her secret to the ears of such a person, now sealed her lips. It was. in truth the delicacy of an incipient love essentially pure and esthetic, revolting from the thought of blending even the outpouring of its confidenee with the grossness of feelings entirely sensual. “The chaste spirit of Virginia ‘shrank from a closer and ‘more intimate contact with Julia’s polluted being: Eboo i Sy ‘S